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RG reports on UFOs

Okay, so after that rant about the RG report on the Premiers’ wife having a traffic accident I turned the page and saw an article about UFO sightings. This paper really is getting surreal today.

I try not to think with my gut on these things (and in general mind you), but I do believe there is a high probability that there is life elsewhere in the universe other than our Earth. I base this on various lines of reasoning (number of planets, immensity of the universe, disbelief that we are the only possible life planet, etc.). I also believe that technology for interplanetary and interstellar travel are entirely possible. However I am highly skeptical that such technology would be widespread and that the probability of highly technologically advanced interstellar travelling extra-terrestrials are visiting our planet at all, let alone on a regular basis, to be quite slim. Also, the Hollywood fabricated image of such beings as generally malevolent seems unlikely to me as well – I’m not denying the possibility, but the probability.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ld welcome the news that contact with such beings has been made, or their existence proven. And if they turn out to be Hollywood style villains (which says more about our own psychology than anything else in my opinion) I’m sure I won’t be the only one resisting them (as futile as it may be). But I just don’t see it happening.

My guess is that this report is going to trigger a whole bunch of either copy-cat reports (mostly from people seeking attention or from misunderstanding natural phenomena) akin to the Salem witch-trials, or a general increase in sci-fi commodity consumption. I wouldn’t be suprised either if some of the religious groups attempt to read something into it all.

I’m beginning to wonder if I’m getting as bad as the RG now… It is Friday afterall I suppose.

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One thought on “RG reports on UFOs”

I remember as a kid while the US military bases were here seeing a few strange flying objects. I’ve since identified at least two of the three objects I saw as examples of US military hardware that at the time were classified and didn’t exist.

One of them was what we now know as the Stealth Fighter/Bomber (either the B-2 or the F-117 or a version/prototype of similar design). I’m not sure when they became official, but I remember seeing them in the mid-1980s. I don’t think they were officialy revealed until the 1989 Gulf War.

The other one that I saw I’m pretty sure must have been a version of the Predator drones, unmanned aerial vehicles.

The other one I recall looked kind of like a golden iron. You know, like those pieces from the old Monopoly games. I’m reckoning this was probably some sort of helicopter design. Something like either the V-22 Osprey or the CH-47 Chinook.

My basic theory is that the US took advantage of its bases here and the open stretch of the Atlantic to test some of its technologies and encouraged the idea of the Bda Triangle as a UFO hotspot to misdirect from its program. I reckon they use the largely uninhabited desert area of of ‘Area 51’ fame for much the same reason.

My guess is that most such observations of UFOs are misperceptions of natural phenomena, generally unknown (human) technologies or ‘mirages.’